Hi,
the Saitek X-52 is a good joystick with lots of features, however, it has some really nasty problems with complex aircraft, that feature autopilot/autothrottle options.
The reason for this, as I found out, is the very bad habit of the X52 to update ALL of its axis, even if only one is processed.
For example, if you try to takeoff with the Flight1 ATR72, you should leave the throttle at idle and rightclick on the Thrustlever on the panel, to get autothrottle and automatic propeller control. So far, everything works fine, the engines spool up and off you go. The problem begins if f.e. you have to steer a little to stay on the runway: This gives a little rudder axis input and the X52 will update not only the rudder, but also the throttle axis, putting it to zero, since the throttle lever is still at idle. So, abruptly, you will lose all power. The F1ATR AP/AT logic will try to compensate by adjusting the power, but this takes its time and at the next rudder or elevator input, the X52 will kill the throttle again. So in the end you get a big struggle between the X52 and the AP/AT logic and an aircraft that has to takeoff with 30 to 50 percent of the possible TO-Thrust.
This whole problem becomes especially funny, if you assign a mixture axis to the x52. Since internally FS9 uses the mixture axis to regulate the fuel flow to the engines of a jet, the X52 logic will kill the engines of a given jet at any joystick movement if you forgot to turn the mixture controll up to 100% after your last prop flight. (And if you did put the mixture to 100%, X52 will open the fuel valves to the engine on every movement...)
BTW, the updating of all axis' at a time also gives FSUIPC problems to identify the right axis in "axis assignments": Most of the time, I get the Z-axis, even if I try elevator or aileron. I presume, the Z-axis is processed first by the X52 logic, so it will be recognized most of the time. So always verify that the values react as they should, otherways try again!
Now, what can we do?
I first tried to solve the problem using the X52 profile editor. Since the X52 can change between profiles in flight, I thought I would make one profile without throttle control and one with throttle control to be able to change inbetween those two as required.
Since it is not possible to directly disable an axis in the profile, I assigned a blank keyboard command to the throttle. Unfortunately, I learned that the axis will be updated anyway, so it didn't help.
I tried to deactivate the joystick in the FS9 menu and access the axis' directly through FSUIPC, but it was just the same. My workaround at this time is to deactivate the Throttle axis assignment and reactivate it as requiredon the FSUIPC axis assignment page. This works, but it is a little annoying to have to go through FSUIPC calibration everytime I turn on the AP/AT.
Here are some proposals to FSUIPC:
1. It would be great to assign a joystick button to turn on/off the processing of a given axis. This could help on a lot of axis conflicts and would be the most practical solution. Such an option on the button page would be great.
2. Helpful could also be an option, that disables the throttle axis as soon as the autothrottle is activated, and reactivates it if it is turned off again. (This will, of course, not work in all cases, since several complex addons don't use the FS9 AT parameters, but have their own logic)
3. An option, that disables mixture (and prop?) axis, if a jet aircraft is used.
4. An interface, that allows gauge programmers to disable given axis' on a given time. I see that a lot of addon designers have the problem of conflicts between joysticks and their autoflight logic, so this could be most helpful.
Just my opinions, I would be glad if some of this could be realized, or maybe someone has an even better idea...
Good flying,
Torsten